Whether you’re an AI pro or a total newbie, you’ve probably not been able to escape the latest buzzword in tech. The whole idea behind AI is to get machines to help us puny humans out… or something like that. By far the most common way to interact with AI is with a chatbot; you might have heard of ChatGPT or Google Bard.
They’re great for answering questions, helping you to write code, or even summarising long bits of text. But they’re a little vanilla. That is to say, it can sometimes take a lot of asking to get exactly what you need. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create your own custom AI chatbot to do your bidding help you out? Well, actually, you can. And it turns out that it’s really rather easy.
Some clever clogs over at OpenAI (the brains behind the artificial brain that is ChatGPT) thought it would be a good idea to let you create your own mini ChatGPT that’s hyper personalised. Here’s how you can create a custom AI chatbot.
It’s alive, it’s alive, it’s… a chatbot
Thanks to GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers) from ChatGPT, there’s no more settling for generic, one-size-fits-all chatbots that respond with the enthusiasm of a teenager asked to clean their room. Rather than being able a jack of all trades, master of none, your personalised GPT is going to be an expert in whatever you task it with.
So, what do you want your AI chatbot to do? Hold the world’s knowledge on 18th-century French literature? Be a virtual shopping assistant that knows your taste better than you do? Or perhaps a cheeky companion that throws sarcastic comments? If you’re anything like us, you’re the resident tech support expert in the family. So, we’re building a tech support bot that can assist our family members instead. It’s like a private version of the Geek Squad, without the bright orange van.
This is where the magic happens. You get to program your GPT to your every whim – but that’s not as scary as the word “programming” might suggest. You’re having a conversation with a GPT bot, which will then make your own chatbot for you. It’s a bit like GPT-ception.
Customizing your GPT on ChatGPT involves feeding it the kind of data and instructions that align with your chatbot’s purpose. Want it to speak in Shakespearean English? Or understand the complexities of quantum physics? This is your chance to mould it into the chatbot of your dreams. The more detail you can go into, the better. Sometimes it’ll ask you for extra details so it knows what to do. But the more you can provide from the get-go, the more effective your AI chatbot will be.
Once you’ve got your GPT-powered chatbot up and running, it’s testing time. You’ll likely find that your chatbot has its quirks. Maybe it’s too fond of dad jokes, or perhaps it’s giving advice that would make your grandmother blush. This is your cue to tweak and fine-tune. The goal is to create a chatbot that not only understands its purpose but also delivers responses with the charm and wit that would make you want to chat all day long.
After testing and tweaking, your GPT is ready to face the world. You can keep your AI chatbot all to yourself, share it with people you know, or share it with the world. You can visit the GPT chatbot we created here (you’ll need to sign up to ChatGPT, which is free), and use it to solve your own tech troubles.
AI abilities for the everyman
AI chatbots can be a rather scary concept at first. While the idea of creating your own sounds like a big task, it’s an awful lot easier than you think. And, in some respects, it can be easier than learning how to master the art of prompting ChatGPT. Just remember to be nice to your chatbot, in case the robots do take over one day.
